1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to container closures and in particular, a combination safety closure and pulverizing device designed for containing, storing, conveniently dispensing, and splitting or breaking down solid material such as tablets, pills and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of safety closures have been developed to prevent children from opening containers such as screw-cap bottles, medicine vials and the like. These closures or caps are generally complex, difficult to use and expensive to fabricate. Many require additional elements or moving parts utilized in connection with the closure. Often the prior art is unreliable in operation and becomes ineffective after opening once or twice for the locking elements soon are abraded or worn away. Other safety caps necessitate unduly complicated maneuvers for removal. Some closures require unusual dexterity, and others are too simple and can be forced open by small children, and hence are not acceptable. Moreover, none of the available closures offer a pulverizing device conveniently accessible in combination with the closure or cap.
Similarly, a vast variety of tablet pulverizers and pill splitters are also available. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,549 issued to R. Sherman and U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,021 issued to J. Fiocchi, many devices provide various means for splitting and breaking down tablets and other similar objects. Yet none are designed with the capability to store substances such as medicine capsules in container closures or bottle caps having safety lock features, particularly safety lock features which are simple to use and manufacture and that provide for easy and effective retrieval of the contents.
Frequently, medication must be administered at a specific time or interval regardless of where a patient is at that time. Medicine is often carried in bottles distributed by the pharmacist designed to be safe from the reach of children and convenient to carry in a purse or pocket. Because many people have difficulty swallowing tablets in whole form, their medication must be broken up. Yet, no prior art bottle cap or container closure offers a convenient mechanism that pulverizes medication without the need for another utensil, avoiding any loss of the prescription or making a mess.
There is a need, heretofore not met, for a device to conveniently contain, store, safety lock, and carry and to easily retrieve and pulverize medicinal substances and the like in bottles or other similar type containers.